Table of contents
- Traffic and sourcing
- Where does your traffic come from?
- Do you buy leads from third parties?
- Can I see a landing page?
- Exclusivity
- Is every lead sold to one buyer only?
- Do you ever sell aged or remnant leads?
- Qualification
- What happens before an opportunity is delivered?
- Who sets the criteria?
- What information comes with each lead?
- Delivery
- Which delivery methods do you support?
- Is every live transfer a warm, introduced handoff?
- What are your transfer hours?
- Can you integrate with our CRM or platform?
- Compliance
- Is there express written consent on every lead, and can I see the language?
- Is a TrustedForm certificate included with every lead?
- Do you scrub against TCPA litigators and the federal Do Not Call registry?
- Do you use prerecorded or automated messages?
- Pricing and terms
- Which pricing models do you offer?
- What happens with duplicates and leads that fail criteria?
- Is there a test?
- What are the caps and minimums?
- Reporting
- What reporting will I have access to?
- Focus and experience
- Which case types are you actually focused on?
- How long have you been running campaigns in this area?
- Which states do you cover, and where is volume strongest?
- Red flags
- How to run the evaluation
- Summary
Choosing a legal lead vendor is a decision that affects your caseload, your intake team's morale and your compliance exposure. Sales pitches tend to sound similar: high quality, exclusive, compliant, scalable. The way to tell vendors apart is to ask specific questions and listen for specific answers.
This guide organizes the most useful questions by topic, explains why each one matters, and describes what a strong answer sounds like. You can use it as a checklist on your next vendor call.
Traffic and sourcing
Where does your traffic come from?
Why it matters: the source of traffic shapes claimant intent, lead quality and consent validity. Some vendors operate their own channels and properties. Some work with vetted partners. Others simply buy leads from other vendors and resell them.
A strong answer: specific channel types, a clear split between owned and partner sources, and how partners are vetted. "We use a variety of high quality sources" is not an answer.
Do you buy leads from third parties?
Why it matters: if leads pass through multiple hands, it becomes harder to confirm exclusivity and consent.
A strong answer: a clear yes or no, and if yes, how those sources are vetted.
Can I see a landing page?
Why it matters: the landing page shows how claimants are being approached, what they are promised and what consent language they see.
A strong answer: the vendor shares one without hesitation.
Exclusivity
Is every lead sold to one buyer only?
Why it matters: shared leads mean competing calls, lower contact rates and more complaints. See exclusive vs shared personal injury leads.
A strong answer: "Yes, every lead goes to one buyer and is never resold." Watch for qualifiers like "exclusive for 24 hours" or "exclusive in your area."
Do you ever sell aged or remnant leads?
Why it matters: a lead you bought may be sold again later at a discount, which means another firm contacts your claimant.
Qualification
What happens before an opportunity is delivered?
Why it matters: qualification is the clearest difference between a pre-qualified opportunity and a form fill.
A strong answer: a clear description of the qualification standard and what happens to claimants who do not meet your criteria. They should not be delivered.
Who sets the criteria?
Why it matters: your firm knows which cases it signs. Criteria should be yours, not a generic vendor definition.
A strong answer: "We build screening questions from your criteria during onboarding." See what makes a car accident lead qualified for criteria worth considering.
What information comes with each lead?
Why it matters: your intake team should start the conversation informed.
A strong answer: a list of specific fields, ideally with a sample record.
Delivery
Which delivery methods do you support?
Why it matters: your operation might need live transfers, API posts, ping post or email, or a combination. See warm transfers vs web form leads.
Is every live transfer a warm, introduced handoff?
Why it matters: a warm introduction and a complete handoff reduce dropped calls and confused claimants.
What are your transfer hours?
Why it matters: your intake staffing needs to match. Transfer hours should be agreed with you, not imposed.
Can you integrate with our CRM or platform?
Why it matters: manual data entry slows response time. See our integrations for typical options.
Compliance
Is there express written consent on every lead, and can I see the language?
Why it matters: consent is the foundation of TCPA compliance. Have counsel review the language.
Is a TrustedForm certificate included with every lead?
Why it matters: independent proof of consent is far stronger than a vendor's own records.
Do you scrub against TCPA litigators and the federal Do Not Call registry?
Why it matters: scrubbing reduces the chance of contacting known serial plaintiffs.
Do you use prerecorded or automated messages?
Why it matters: these carry additional consent requirements and risk.
For the full list, see our TCPA compliance checklist.
Pricing and terms
Which pricing models do you offer?
Why it matters: the model determines who carries conversion risk. See CPL vs CPQ vs CPA.
What happens with duplicates and leads that fail criteria?
Why it matters: clear replacement terms prevent disputes.
A strong answer: a written policy. Ours: duplicates are returned and leads that fail agreed criteria are replaced.
Is there a test?
Why it matters: you should be able to measure results with your own intake team before committing to volume.
A strong answer: a defined test with clear terms. Every new Case Growth Pro buyer starts with one.
What are the caps and minimums?
Why it matters: you need volume that matches your intake capacity.
Reporting
What reporting will I have access to?
Why it matters: you need to reconcile what you were billed for with what you received, and to see call outcomes.
A strong answer: real time access, not a monthly spreadsheet. Our buyers get real time reporting through our call tracking platform.
Focus and experience
Which case types are you actually focused on?
Why it matters: a vendor focused on one area has usually refined its sourcing and qualification for that area. A vendor that does everything may do nothing especially well.
How long have you been running campaigns in this area?
Why it matters: experience in a specific case type tends to show up in screening quality. Motor vehicle accidents are our focus.
Which states do you cover, and where is volume strongest?
Why it matters: availability varies. Make sure the vendor has real volume where you practice. Our featured states are Florida, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Missouri, New Jersey and Arizona, with nationwide coverage beyond them. See our state pages.
Red flags
Be cautious if a vendor:
- Cannot or will not say where traffic comes from
- Promises a specific number of signed cases or a guaranteed return
- Will not share consent language or provide TrustedForm certificates
- Offers prices far below the market with no explanation
- Has no written replacement policy
- Will not do a small test before a large commitment
- Shares testimonials or statistics it cannot substantiate
How to run the evaluation
- Shortlist vendors that pass the red flag check.
- Ask the questions above and write down the answers.
- Have counsel review consent language and contracts.
- Run parallel tests with the same criteria and intake team.
- Compare results side by side: what each signed case really cost you, how often your team reached the claimant, and how claimants felt about the experience.
- Check compliance records on a sample of delivered leads.
Summary
A good legal lead vendor can tell you exactly where its traffic comes from, how every claimant is verified, what compliance records accompany every lead, how replacements work and what you will be able to see in reporting. If the answers are vague, the leads probably will be too.
We are happy to answer every question on this list. Request pricing or send us a question.
Case Growth Pro is a marketing and lead generation company, not a law firm. We do not provide legal advice. See our disclaimer.